I do understand the basics of an if/else statement and can roughly see how to use the image helper based on other types of templates (page_list) etc - but I have trouble working out how to add another if/else statement into one that's already there (the permissions one).

Also I get errors - basically because I have trouble with the ways to output markup using php. It seems like every template (depending on who wrote it) renders markup completely differently.

I'm going to have another go and will post back with the errors if that's OK?

Thanks for the links but I still don't really understand your template and need the link and custom image functionality of the built-in slideshow (I have this all working using Jordan's designer_gallery block but need the extra functionality of the Slideshow block).

Looking at my template, I'm guessing that while I'm loading the image helper, I'm not really applying it to the images?

<?php$ih= Loader::helper('image');//load the image helper?>
<div id="<?phpecho$bID;?>">
<?php// output each slideforeach($imagesas$imgInfo){// get file obj for the slide$f=File::getByID($imgInfo['fID']);// resize the full size file to fit$full=$ih->getThumbnail($f,970,485);$fp=new Permissions($f);if($fp->canRead()){// only output link if we have a target availableif($full){

<?php$ih= Loader::helper('image');//load the image helper?>
<div id="<?phpecho$bID;?>">
<?php// output each slideforeach($imagesas$imgInfo){// get file obj for the slide$f=File::getByID($imgInfo['fID']);// resize the full size file to fit$full=$ih->getThumbnail($f,970,485);$fp=new Permissions($f);if($fp->canRead()){// only output link if we have a target availableif($full){?>
<a href="<?phpecho$imgInfo['url']?>">
<?php$ih->outputThumbnail($f,220,152);?>
</a>
<?php// output a thumbnail without link}else{$ih->outputThumbnail($f,220,152);}?><?php}}?>
</div>

Awesome mate, there was a syntax error outputting the image without the a tag so I just copied the syntax for the if ($full) statement above it - for my own ref, this is what I used:

<?php$ih= Loader::helper('image');//load the image helper?>
<div id="<?phpecho$bID;?>">
<?php// output each slideforeach($imagesas$imgInfo){// get file obj for the slide$f=File::getByID($imgInfo['fID']);// resize the full size file to fit$full=$ih->getThumbnail($f,970,485);$fp=new Permissions($f);if($fp->canRead()){// only output link if we have a target availableif($full){

<?php$ih= Loader::helper('image');//load the image helper?>
<div id="<?phpecho$bID;?>">
<?php// output each slideforeach($imagesas$imgInfo){// get file obj for the slide$f=File::getByID($imgInfo['fID']);// resize the full size file to fit$full=$ih->getThumbnail($f,970,485);$fp=new Permissions($f);if($fp->canRead()){// only output link if we have a target availableif($full){?>
<a href="<?phpecho$imgInfo['url']?>">
<?php$ih->outputThumbnail($f,970,485);?>
</a>
<?php// output a thumbnail without link}else{?><?php$ih->outputThumbnail($f,970,485);?><?php}?><?php}}?>
</div>

To help control the size of the image, you can place overflow:hidden; in the css file. It won't help for images that are too small, but for those people that try to put a 800x800 pixel image into a 300x300 pixel space, it will cut off those images. Then maybe they'll see they need a smaller image!
Marsha
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